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UK airports ‘are stop-offs in torture flights’
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Eleven police forces were today threatened with legal action if they fail to investigate allegations that UK airports are being used as secret stop-overs by CIA jets transferring terror suspects to torture camps.
The human rights group Liberty has called on the chief constables of forces from Prestwick, near Glasgow, to Bournemouth to investigate claims that the airports are facilitating kidnap and torture – which is illegal under British and European Union law.
The move follows international concern over the CIA’s failure to confirm or deny suggestions that it has illegally abducted terrorist suspects and flown them between a network of clandestine detention centres – so-called “black sites” – for interrogation under torture.
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Flight records show that at least 210 private jets carrying detainees apparently leased by shell companies attached to the CIA have stopped over in the UK since September 2001.
André Rouvoet: Ongelovigen gevaarlijker dan moslims
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Christenen moeten niet bang zijn voor het islamitische geloof. De grootste bedreiging voor de christelijke grondslagen van onze samenleving komt niet van moslims, maar van ‘dogmatisch seculiere humanisten’.
Tweede Kamerlid André Rouvoet van de ChristenUnie riep gisteravond zijn gehoor in Joure op om “zich geen angst te laten aanpraten voor onze medemensen”.
De fractievoorzitter sprak voor zestig man in De Koepel. Een aantal van hen toonde zich ongerust over de islam. Een toehoorder stelde dat ze de islamiet ziet als de antichrist. Rouvoet toonde zich echter meer bezorgd over de “bijna religieuze kruistocht tegen alles wat met religie te maken heeft” van D66.
‘dre heeft kennelijk goed naar de amerikaanse taferelen gekeken. Ben benieuwd wanneer evolutie op school een probleem wordt..
Voorlopig geen heffing op MP3-speler
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Er komt voorlopig geen kopieerheffing op MP3-spelers en videorecorders met een harde schijf. Minister Donner (Justitie) zei woensdag in de Tweede Kamer er op te vertrouwen dat de Stichting Onderhandelingen Thuiskopievergoeding (SONT) hiertoe niet binnenkort zal besluiten.
Daarover was verontrusting ontstaan nadat er binnen de SONT, waar belanghebbenden aan tafel zitten, een compromis leek te zijn bereikt over een heffing die kan oplopen tot 25 euro per apparaat.
Minister Donner én de Tweede Kamer denken dat het niet zinvol is om per land een vergoeding voor musici in te voeren, omdat de apparaten makkelijk via internet in een land kunnen worden aangeschaft waar zo’n heffing niet bestaat. Volgens Donner zit ook SONT op de lijn om eerst te wachten op een voorstel van de Europese Commissie.
Daarmee stelde hij de linkse oppositie en D66 niet helemaal gerust. “Geen besluit van de SONT om te heffen is niet hetzelfde als een besluit om niet te heffen”, aldus Van der Laan (D66).
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Donner wil niet nu al aan de SONT opleggen dat er nooit een heffing op apparaten mag komen. De Kamer én de regering hebben zelf besloten dat de belanghebbenden er zelf moeten zien uit te komen.
Pas als deze zelfregulering niet goed werkt is er volgens Donner reden om te “corrigeren.”.
Wel, we hebben allemaal gezien hoe goed bijvoorbeeld Sony is in de zelfregulering. Kennelijk is dat dan weer géén reden om te “corrigeren”…
Contractor spends big on key lawmakers
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A San Diego businessman under investigation in the bribery case of former congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham is a well-known GOP fundraiser whose generosity to key members of Congress came at the same time his company saw large increases in its government contracts, public records show.
Brent Wilkes, the founder of defense contractor ADCS Inc., gave more than $840,000 in contributions to 32 House members or candidates, campaign-finance records show. He flew Republican lawmakers on his private jet and hired lobbyists with close ties to those lawmakers.
Wilkes’ charitable foundation, which aids sick children and military families, honored congressmen at black-tie banquets and donated to their favorite causes. Wilkes was also a “Pioneer” for
President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, meaning he raised at least $100,000.With help from two committee chairmen, ADCS got more than $90 million in government contracts since its founding in 1995, helping propel Wilkes from an obscure businessman to a millionaire prominent in Republican circles.
US military planting stories in Iraqi newspapers
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The US military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to print stories written by US soldiers in an effort to polish the image of the American mission in
Iraq, a US newspaper reported.US military “information operations” troops have written the articles, which are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of the Lincoln Group, a Washington-based defense contractor, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Many articles are presented to Iraqi newspapers as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists, the daily said, citing documents it obtained and unnamed US military officials.
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“Here we are trying to create the principles of democracy in Iraq. Every speech we give in that country is about democracy. And we’re breaking all the first principles of democracy when we’re doing it,” a senior Pentagon official who opposes the planting of stories was quoted as saying.
72 bands
There are 72 bands hidden in this street scene: you can download a higher-res version at Virgin’s Web site.
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Cartoons
Here’s the Problem With Emily Dickinson
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. On Dec. 12, the Federal District Court in Los Angeles will hear a lawsuit filed by a consortium of Christian high schools against the University of California system for refusing to credit some of their courses when their students apply for admission.
Among those courses are “Christianity’s Influence in American History” and “Christianity and American Literature,” both of which draw on textbooks published by Bob Jones University of Greenville, S.C., which describes itself as having stood for “the absolute authority of the Bible since 1927.”
The plaintiffs, the Association of Christian Schools International, which represents more than 800 schools in California, and the Calvary Chapel Christian School of Murrieta, Calif., contend that their students are being discriminated against because of their religious beliefs. The university system counters that it has the right to set its own standards. Here are excerpts from the disputed texts.
“United States History for Christian Schools,” written by Timothy Keesee and Mark Sidwell (Bob Jones University, 2001), says this about Thomas Jefferson.
American believers can appreciate Jefferson’s rich contribution to the development of their nation, but they must beware of his view of Christ as a good teacher but not the incarnate son of God. As the Apostle John said, “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” (I John 2:22).
Slavery, which most historians look at politically or economically, is seen as “an excellent example of the far-reaching consequences of sin.”
The sin in this case was greed – greed on the part of African tribal leaders, on the part of slave traders and on the part of slave owners, all of whom allowed their love for profit to outweigh their love for their fellow man. The consequences of such greed and racism extended across society and far into the future. It resulted in untold suffering-most obviously for the black race but for the white race as well. … The Lord has never exaggerated in warning us of sin’s devastating consequences – for us and for our descendants (Exodus 34:7).
Not only does it imply the African leaders were as bad as the whites involved in the slave trade (and certainly they weren’t innocent), but by ordering it that way there’s the subtle implication of their being the most responsible/culpable.
These people are good at what they do. They’re evil, they’re nasty, and they’re smart.
There’s more examples in the article. There’s six students who are filing the suit, although they didn’t even apply to UC. It looks like the fundamentalists are beginning to realize their crap will keep them out of college and are starting to work on changing the state university admission policies. Be very worried about the future of education in the USA.
What’s next? “Physics for Christian Schools”?
E=mc2
Where:
E is energy
m is mass
c is speed of light in a vacuum Christ
Thus, class, we see in this equation the enormous power of Christ which we can unleash upon the heathen world through relativity.
US citizens realise the rest of the world hates America to a greater or lesser extent. Thanks to their wall-to-wall propaganda media they can’t understand why. The average US citizen bears about as much responsibility for US government torture programmes as the Man in the Moon. Nice country, nice people: Shame about the government. Pariah nation status beckons: Don’t do the crime if you can’t wear the slime.